Oslo terror: political vultures circle in

Gee, that didn't take long. Conspiranoid cranks claim (on no evidence) that Mossad was behind the Oslo terror attacks, providing an opportunity for the right-wing Israeli press to tar "anti-Zionists" as conspiranoid cranks. Arutz Sheva, far-right organ of the settler movement, swoops in on the kneejerk spewings of two perennial faves of the conspiracy set. The first is Wayne Madsen, a self-proclaimed former US military analyst, who plays an utterly specious connect-the-dots game to link accused Oslo bomber Anders Behring Breivik to Israeli intelligence...

Arutz Sheva says the offending quote is from "the American blog of Wayne Madsen," which is modestly called Wayne Madsen Report, but we could only find it reposted on the wacky Alex Jones' InfoWars.com. Here it is:

[Breivik is a] supporter of such vile Zionist Islamophobes as Pam Geller and Richard Pipes. Pipes and Geller are ciphers for Israeli intelligence and propaganda elements and provide a clear link between Breivik and Mossad, which is under orders to stage false flag attacks to garner support for Israel against Palestine, Cyprus and Norway being the two most recent examples of Mossad-staged attacks.

Let's put aside the question of whether "Mossad...is under orders to stage false flag attacks," and how Madsen purports to know this. Instead note the rank cynicism of Madsen's wiggle-words "supporter" and "cipher." Breivik is a "supporter" (that is, probably, a mere fanboy) of professional Islamophobes Pam Geller and Richard Pipes, who are assumed to be "ciphers" for Mossad. The vague word "cipher" (sounds appropriately sinister, but the dictionary suggests it means "non-entity") is never defined. By this pseudo-logic, every idiot who protested against New York's "Ground Zero Mosque" is a Mossad agent. Yet this empty non-evidence is held to "provide a clear link between Breivik and Mossad"! This is what George Orwell called dishonest use of language "to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Madsen goes on to gripe, providing further propaganda ammo for the vile Arutz Sheva:

Obama administration covers up for Israel by calling attack "domestic." With ample evidence of Mossad involvement in Oslo, it is up to every one of us to report to the Nth degree any suspicious contacts with Israelis or Israeli sympathizers.

"Ample evidence"? As far as we can see, there has been no evidence. And note how Madsen paranoiacally lowers to bar from Mossad "ciphers" to mere "Israelis or Israeli sympathizers." We have pointed out before that Madsen is a sloppy writer and one-note obsessive who even saw a Mossad conspiracy in the Elliot Spitzer sex scandal! Far worse, he is among the coterie of cranks leading the charge on Rwanda genocide denial.

Moving on to the next conspiranoid cited by Artuz Sheva. The article states:

Al Jazeera gave more credence to the Mossad theory by publishing an article by Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist and political activist known for his criticisms of Zionism, Jewish identity, and Judaism.

Atzmon harped on the Norwegian Labor party’s support for boycotting Israel and noted, “The Labor Party Youth Movement have been devoted promoters of the Israel Boycott campaign. Many of the children who were gunned down by Breivik earlier had held up anti-Israel signs."

...I am not in a position at present to firmly point a finger at Israel, its agents, or its sayanim—but assembling the information together, and considering all possibilities may suggest that Anders Behring Breivik might indeed, have been a Sabbath Goy.

"Sayanim" and "Sabbath Goy" are meant to denote gentiles who serve as agents or dupes of the sinister Jews. The Israeli-born Gilad Atzmon is a sort of professional ex-Jew-turned-Judeophobe in exactly the same way his opposite numbers Geller and Pipes are professional Islamophobes. However, a search of AlJazeera's website reveals that his ugly text did not appear there. In fact, it appeared on the deceptively named AlJazeerah.info, a wacky, hateful conspiranoid site (despite its ironic kicker "Cross-Cultural Understanding") that doubtless chose its name to profit from confusion with the legitimate AlJazeera. It's hard to believe that Arutz Sheva honestly fell for the subterfuge, because not only is the real AlJazeera a .net rather than .info—but the name is spelled slightly differently, with the conspiranoid imposters adding an H at the end (probably to avoid litigation). Arutz Sheva, in its attribution, actually uses the spelling of the legitimate AlJazeera! Pretty clearly, they are hoping to tar the Arab media giant as well as "anti-Zionism" with the evil spewings of Madsen and Atzmon.

So Madsen and Atzmon are being useful idiots for the Israeli right. Way to go, guys!

About the Author

Bill Weinberg is an award-winning 25-year veteran journalist in the fields of human rights, indigenous peoples, ecology and war. He is the author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico, now available from Verso Books, and War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America (Zed Books, 1991).